Poverty in Liberia

What is poverty? To be poor is to be underprivileged, to live a lifestyle not deemed a proper and healthy one to most, and, as is the main connotation, to have an insufficient amount of money. Fourteen years of civil war has left the infrastructure of Liberia in ruin, affecting water, sanitation, food security and livelihood in general. This has left Liberia the third poorest country in the world, in terms of GDP per capita. In actuality, there are only two classes in Liberia: the very rich and the very poor, with the majority classified as the latter. A reporter from the African Development Bank Group estimated that only 4.8% of Liberia’s population could be considered middle class (the lowest percent on the continent). There is no middle class, but rather, a working poor.
Infrastructure
The civil war decimated the infrastructure of Liberia, leaving most Liberians void of safe drinking water, access to proper sanitation facilities, electricity, and roads. More than half of all Liberians are without access to clean water and functioning sanitation facilities. 18% of all deaths in Liberia are caused by deficiencies in water and sanitation. Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and bacterial and protozoic diarrhea are very infectious diseases that are found in Liberia’s unsanitary water. As for electricity, most of Liberians live in the dark, with a choice few relying on loud and unreliable diesel generators. Paved roads are scarce as well, stunting transportation and, in turn, affecting the economy in Liberia.
Not Enough Money
76% of Liberians are now living below the poverty line ($1/day) and 52% live in extreme poverty ($0.50/day). Most workers in the middle class, or the working poor in other words, of Liberia earn $100 a month plus $30 of transportation stipend and a bag of rice. $300 a month is an upper-middle salary, about four times more than what policemen earns, and 10 times more than what half of all Liberians live on. These half of the Liberians